Valensi Rose Partner Michael R. Morris will moderate a virtual panel discussion about sales of music publishing rights and catalogs at the CalCPA Entertainment Industry Conference on June 23rd.
Information about the Conference is available online.
The title of the panel discussion is: "The New Golden Age of Music Publishing?" The title reflects the fact that digital streaming of music has fueled explosive revenue growth in the music publishing business, leading to a red-hot seller’s market for music publishing rights and catalogs.
Mr. Morris and a panel of four industry experts will discuss the reasons why music publishing rights have become such a hot commodity, who is funding sales at sky-high earnings multiples, how such deals are being structured, and the continuing tax benefits for sellers of self-created music works.
The panelists will include Denise Colletta, with City National Bank; Henry Root, a partner in the law firm of Lapidus, Root, Franklin & Sacharow, LLP; Olivier Chastan, founder and CEO of Iconoclast Artists Group; and Lawrence Mestel, Founder and CEO of Primary Wave Music.
With over 30 years of banking experience, Denise Colletta leads a team at City National Bank that provides financing to the music and media industries. She has been twice named a Top Dealmaker in the Entertainment Industry by Variety, and Billboard named her one of the Top Women in Music and one of the 100 Most Powerful Executives in the industry.
Henry Root has over 25 years of legal and business affairs experience in the music and television industries, and has represented major recording artists, songwriters and producers, independent music publishers and independent record labels, as well as actors. He began his legal career at MCA Records, Inc.
As CEO of Iconic Artists Group, Olivier Chastan acquires and manages the intellectual property of iconic entertainment artists, creators, and brands. Olivier has 20 years of experience in the entertainment business, with a strong focus on intellectual property and media/entertainment technology acquisitions and investments.
Lawrence Mestel founded Primary Wave Music in 2006. Now operating in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Austin, the company specializes in acquiring and marketing iconic artists and over 15,000 songs. Primary Wave offers in-house branding, digital marketing, publicity, film &TV development, talent management, and estate management. Earlier in his career, Larry held senior executive posts at Virgin Records, Arista Records, and the group that included Island Records, Island Music Publishing and Island Pictures.
In addition to being a past President of California Copyright Conference, Mr. Morris was a co-chair of the CalCPA Education Foundation Entertainment Industry Conference (2013, 2014, 2015), at which he has moderated numerous music industry and entertainment tax panels.
Michael has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer (2006-2019) and one of “L.A.’s Top 100 Lawyers” by the Los Angeles Business Journal.
He is a former trial lawyer for the IRS and a certified specialist in taxation law. His entertainment industry clients include producers, record labels, composers, music publishers, actors, talent agencies, motion picture companies, post-production houses and Grammy-winning recording artists.